Supplier support

A customer has asked for your emissions. Here is what to do.

This section is for the person at a supplier who has just received that request and has to deal with it alongside their actual job. It explains what your customer is asking for and why, how to answer with what you already have, and how to measure, commit and reduce in an order that customers recognise. Every guide is free. None of it needs a sustainability team.

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The path

Customers ask for things in a predictable order. The five stages below follow that order, so you can find where you are and see what comes next.

Respond

Understand the request and reply, even before you have numbers.

Measure

Build a first footprint from the bills and records you already hold.

Commit

Set a reduction target that a customer will take seriously.

Reduce

Make the changes customers ask about most, starting with electricity.

Lead

Plans, product footprints, your own suppliers and the business case inside your company.

Respond

Respond

Most suppliers get the request before they have any data. That is normal, and the right first move is to reply rather than wait. These guides explain what sits behind the request, the order customers ask things in, and how to answer well with little or nothing to hand.

What's behind your customer's emissions request

Customers ask suppliers for emissions data because their own targets and reporting now depend on it. Understanding what they need, and what they will do with your answer, makes the request much easier to deal with.

The order customers ask things in

Customers ask suppliers for the same things in the same order: figures, a target, action, then product data. Find where you are on that list and you know what to do next.

Replying when you have little or no data

Reply this week, say what you can provide now, and give a date for the rest. A short honest answer beats a complete one that arrives in six months.

Measure

Measure

A first footprint does not need a consultant. It needs last year’s energy bills, fuel and vehicle records, and a free calculator. These guides cover the three scopes in plain terms, what accuracy is good enough to start, how to improve your data over time and what “verified” means when a customer asks for it.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 for a company your size

Scope 1 is the fuel you burn, Scope 2 is the energy you buy, Scope 3 is everything else. Your customer is asking about the first two now and the third later.

A first footprint from your bills and records

Last year's electricity and fuel bills, a free calculator and an afternoon are enough for a first Scope 1 and 2 figure your customer can use.

Free tools, a consultant, or doing it yourself

Most suppliers can do a first footprint with free tools. A consultant earns their fee when you need Scope 3 detail, verification or a product footprint. Here is how to decide.

Moving from estimates to measured data

A first estimate uses an industry average. The figure improves when you swap that average for the real thing: your supplier's own factor, your actual consumption, or a product footprint. Do it one category at a time, largest first.

Publishing your numbers and what "verified" means

Publish your footprint once, on one page, and every customer can use it. Verification is a third-party check against a standard; most customers ask for it later, not first.

Commit

Commit

A target is the second thing most customers ask for. These guides explain what a credible target looks like for a company your size, how to set one before your baseline is perfect, and when the Science Based Targets initiative is the right next step.

Setting a reduction target without a sustainability team

A credible target is a base year, an end year and a percentage, written down and published. You can set one from a first footprint, and most customers ask for it before they ask for anything verified.

Is the SBTi right for you yet?

The SBTi validates targets against climate science and customers recognise it. For a small supplier it is a reasonable second step, not a first one, and a public commitment usually satisfies a customer until you are ready.

Reduce

Reduce

Customers want to see action as well as numbers. Switching to renewable electricity is the change they ask about first because it is the fastest to make and the easiest to evidence. After that come heat, efficiency, fleet and logistics, then materials and packaging. One guide covers how to pay for it.

Renewable electricity: the change customers ask about first

Switching to renewable electricity is the fastest large cut most suppliers can make and the easiest to prove. The options differ in cost and in how much a customer will credit, so pick with the evidence in mind.

Heat, efficiency, fleet and logistics

After electricity, the reductions worth making are in how you heat your site, how much energy you waste, what your vehicles burn and how your goods move. Ranked here by effort and impact for a manufacturing or distribution business.

Lower-carbon materials and packaging

Most of what a manufacturer emits is in what it buys. You cut it by asking your own suppliers the question you were asked, choosing recycled or lower-carbon versions of the same material, and using less packaging per unit.

Paying for it: grants, green finance and customer programmes

The cheapest reductions pay for themselves. For the ones that need capital, there are four sources: government grants, your bank's green products, your energy supplier, and your own customers' programmes.

Lead

For suppliers who are past the basics: a one-page reduction plan with owners and dates, taking the customer’s request to your own leadership team, product carbon footprints for suppliers of physical goods, passing the ask down to your own suppliers, and a month-by-month first year.

A one-page reduction plan with owners and dates

A reduction plan is a short list of actions, each with a named owner, a date, a cost and the tonnes it saves. One page is enough, and it is the document that keeps a target alive when nobody has this as their job.

Taking the customer's request to your leadership team

A customer's emissions request is a commercial signal, and that is how to present it internally: what the customer asked, what it costs to answer, what it costs not to, and what you recommend. One page, built from the request itself.

Product carbon footprints: when a customer needs one

A product carbon footprint is the emissions of one product, not your company. Customers in physical goods ask for it once company figures are in place. Company-level data comes first, and it is reasonable to say so.

Producing a product carbon footprint you can stand behind

A product carbon footprint is a bill of materials with an emission factor against every line, plus your own energy per unit, calculated to a standard and checked before it goes out. Here are the steps, the data and the check.

Asking your own suppliers

You have been on the receiving end of this request. Send a better one: ask for what already exists first, ask only the suppliers that matter, make the ask small, and tell them what you will do with the answer.

Your first year, month by month

Twelve months from "request received" to a published footprint, a target, the first reduction and a plan. A sequence a small supplier can follow alongside the day job, with what to send the customer at each step.

Using DitchCarbon

If your customer uses DitchCarbon

If the customer who contacted you uses DitchCarbon, your company already has a profile, built from what you have published and from industry data, and you were asked to check it rather than complete a form. The profile draws on verified emissions data for over 2 million organisations, built on primary emissions data wherever it exists, so what you have already published is what your customer sees first. Claiming the profile is free and takes about 30 seconds.

Your DitchCarbon profile: what it is and how to claim it

Your company already has a DitchCarbon profile, built from what you have published and from industry data. Claiming it is free, takes about 30 seconds, and lets you check and correct what your customer sees.

How your score works and what moves it

The score is a number from 0 to 100 that tells a customer whether your company is acting on its emissions. The criteria are shown, so the path to a better score is written down: reduce, commit, disclose, get checked.

Reusing scorecards, disclosures and past questionnaires

If you have an EcoVadis scorecard, a CDP response, an ISO certificate or a previous customer's questionnaire, you have most of your answer already. Here is how to get it onto your profile and use it for the next request.

Who sees your data

What you have published is public, because it already was. What you add for one customer stays with that customer unless you say otherwise. You approve every share.

Getting help

Supplier support is free whether or not your customer uses DitchCarbon. Email, book a call, or join a live session. Here is how to get an answer first time.

Not sure if your customer uses DitchCarbon? The request will have come from a ditchcarbon.com link or email. If it did not, everything above still applies.

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Where you are

Free help by country

Government calculators, national emission factors, grants, green loans, energy audits and training in about 50 countries and more than 20 languages. Each guide also shows what applies in your country.

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Germany →Grants, loans and a free CO₂ tool France →Subsidised footprint and green loans Japan →Ministry guidance and subsidies All countries →Plus global resources that work everywhere

Get help

Email suppliersupport@ditchcarbon.com and hear back within two working days. Free, whether or not your customer uses DitchCarbon.

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